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palletizing

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Free stuff!  I’ve gotten a load of a pallets recently, and I hunger for more! I got 5 my first trip out, and promptly used 4 to make a compost bin, at long last.  I need to find a pitchfork though!  I’ve got so much straw and yard cuttings and kitchen scraps in there it’s already too heavy to turn. http://www.villagecarpentrysd.com/design-pallet has some ideas for clever potting benches!  I could fit one of those on the side porch for sure.

I’ve been reading about SAR a bit, again.  http://www.mc2sar.org/ is the local canine SAR group, and while I think Aspen is probably too old (sadface!!) to invest the training in, being as it takes 1-2 years to get mission-ready I could totally be preparing myself.  I haven’t emailed yet, but .. might be just the sort of activity for me.  Outdoorsey, survival, hiking, service oriented.  It would have a set schedule of 2 field trainings per week (sun/thurs) that are legit enough for me to feel ok being afk for raids, but still present the other nights.  And I’m much more likely to stick with things that are scheduled.  So, if I go for it, could start attending trainings and picking up on how the dogs are trained while also being a contributing support member.  With the long-term goal of getting a young weim to train at some point maybe next year, depending on life.   I’ve been a little too nervous to actually contact them yet though, still.. thinking on it.

So far, living with a roommate has been pretty fun.  Have someone around to chat with, go on hikes, cook for!  Last weekend, on the 4th we were pretty active - went to see Twilight (…) and then on to santa fe for the wine festival!  Spent about 2 hours sampling and wandering, and untold dollars on purchasing some choice bottles and other local delicacies.  It was really great!  I was pleased to be able to sample so, so many iterations on themes, there is nothing like a wine festival to expose you to countless flavors and develop a sense for what you like, or don’t like, and why.  Also, since it was towards the end of the last day, and well into 4th of July evening, a lot of the tents were underpopulated and we got to chat with the vendors.  Fun!  After that we headed up the santa fe mountain to Ten Thousand Waves - I picked up my NM residents discount card for future spoiling, and we did a soak in the communal women’s tub.  A lovely shower to clean off all the dust from the day, slipped into the robes they give you and padded up to a nice outdoor deck.  It was about 106 which is hotter than I keep mine, but with a 60-degree dip tank right there to cool off :D  After a while i was so relaxed it was all I could do to slump mostly upright in a deck chair with the evening breezes rusting the leaves overhead.  Ahhh.

Other than that, life has been pretty routine.  Work, play, hike, read, rinse & repeat.  Today is exciting because waiting at home for me are a pair of Women’s KSO Treks, and a brand new m’fing imac!  holy shit!  My trusty laptop is now 3.5 years old of almost constant use, and even with a logic board replacement its really been struggling lately.  I told myself I could have an imac when I finished grad school but it’s been like 5 months now and I still haven’t gotten comments back from my advisor, so like … I jumped the gun.   Very excited to go home and gently caress it.

Last weekend there was a derby match in Taos, it was Taos vs noobs and Dallas came to skate against the munecas.  So I have a lot of photos from that day to process, I’ve been waiting to install LR3 on the new computer to get started on the processing though.   Disappointingly, my Canon 40D stopped working last week. The shutter doesn’t … quite do what it needs to, and the camera throws up Err99.  Which is sort of a catchall for communication woes, but I checked the lens, no lens, the CF card, no CF card, different battery - all to no avail so that pretty much leaves the shutter.  Naturally it’s 5 months out of warranty so I need to call Canon and figure out what the next step is for repair.  What this meant for me last weekend for derby was ..  my only option was to bring my old 20D along to use.   At first I was really angry about that (it’s so outdated! the ISO capabilities are crap! the shots per second is slow!) but I decided to look at it as an opportunity.  The first derby game I ever shot was in Taos, using that camera (different lens, granted) and the results were pretty bad!  So this will be a chance to see how I’ve improved since then (with the addition of A) a Sigma 50-150 lens which I do love and B)LR3 noise-reduction voodoo  which let me brave shooting on “H” iso mode).   So not an exact comparison but should be interesting to compare when I get some photos up.

I’ve been busily cooking lately.  Last night was some stuffed calabacitas from the farmers market produce haul and tonight or tomorrow I want to attempt gluten-free homemade pizza.  hee.  Some other recipes I want to keep in mind:  Rice noodle dishes for the summer; Tacos de Papa which has me wanting a tortilla press;  Summery cakes for a special occasion; and a peach or plum crumble that looks divine.  And nothing says summer to me like a nice Gazpacho!  I’ll have to make that and see if Geoff eats it when he’s not trying to impress me lol (I made a nice lunch before I knew he hates tomatoes and he was totally smooth about it) Lastly, more science in the kitchen: homemade ginger ale looks fun!

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YAK ATTACK

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Summer… time for grilling!  I got 1 lb of awesome looking Yak meat from a Taos grazier who has a stand at the farmers market.  The plan: to craft some into a burger in the style of this spicy bison burger recipe, and make more of it into some green chili breakfast sausage!  Yay! I would like to compare it to the green chili bison sausage of awesomeness.

The visit so far is progressing well!  The plan on Friday was to drop off the baby rooster in santa fe, perhaps load up some free pallets if they are still there and then on to abq.  Pick up some food at Annapurna and be at the airport at 9!    It actually all worked out quite well.  The rooster is re-homed, and the lady was really delighted with him!  She drove off smiling with little dude sitting on her lap peering out the window.  The 2 girls seem to be adjusting to being down a member.  I next swung by a nearby neighborhood in santa fe and managed to load 5 free pallets into my car, and then on to abq.  Got some delicious food and picked up geoff.  We just hung out on the roof level of the airport parking garage and ate looking out over the city.  I got a present!  A folder of 100 CDs that he burned from his collection! This is awesome because: new music! but also my XM radio (and even FM radio) have ceased to function in my car, so CDs are my only form of musical entertainment and i was getting REALLY sick of my old ones.  So, it’s been fun flipping through and picking one at random, never know what I’ll get.

So, yeah.  We stayed up late on Friday, and slept in Saturday blessedly rooster-free.  Sat/Sunday were like breakfast, did some construction work, got some plants from a greenhouse in white rock.  Built an amazingly ghetto compost bin from my free pallets!  It’s possible I’ll add some refinement later (like, oh a real hinged lid, and maybe a way to open it from the front. or maybe not) but for now it works to keep the animals from digging and making a freaking mess all over.  And started working on the coop V2.  I have a hard time with framing because - there is no level surface anywhere for me to work!  I could really use like… a garage or workshop or basement - someplace with a floor? a giant table?  So it’s hard getting things square, or cuts that are straight so I have to repress my urge to fiddle for perfection.  Just telling myself it’s good enough, I can can fill in those gaps with caulking no problem.

My car is still making troublesome sounds and feelings of vibration.  I don’t entirely trust it, but I feel spread very, very thin these days like spending many hundreds to diagnose and fix whatever is going on is just beyond my reach.  It’s like there feels something wrong with the suspension, or steering/wheel connections… plus an .. exhaust leak?  Something is causing it to shake at idle.  And the transmission, when I let the clutch out, thrums in a way I find disconcerting.  So, anyway driving lately hasn’t really been reassuring.  Has slowed me down, though.

So apparently cinder may be driving down here tomorrow! goodness gracious.  At least the room is pretty much ready to go, just need to clean some stuff out.  I have to also clean off at least half the office to find usable desk space (this mostly involves a lot of filing and judicious trashing) and provide internet up there for her old G5.  I bought …. this.   An apple airport express.  My hope is that this will latch onto the existing wireless network and .. make it better.   For the upstairs.  And also provide an ethernet port to plug in ancient machines of yore that lack the wireless capabilities.  I believe this is possible.

Other things to do:

Finish painting closet door / rehang.
Find new storage for geoffs stuff (closet?)
Install floor trim
Empty closet (rehome linens and towels, clothes)
Clear out office/organize/file
Set up network

Make dining room into a place more fit for dining, and less workshop.
Finish drywall??? ugh
Transplant new plants
omg coop

Not much else, the week has been pretty normal - work, come home, eat delicious dinners, and either raid or completely bail on raiding as the case may be (Tuesday night REQUIRED pizza and beer in santa fe).  We’re up to the final season of The Wire - it will have taken us almost a year watching off and on during visits to get through it!   Will have to find a suitable follow-up.  It’s nice just playing at leading a life, I suppose - the time between visit this round seemed very very long.

I did end up making those yak burgers! Although not the sausage.  Grilling, always fun.  The spicy ketchup is fun, and I thought the meat had a very nice flavor.  Geoff actually had some too - I’m eating less meat overall as mentioned, and he’s open to eating it for “special occasions” - not more than a few times a year I’m sure.  It was a little odd, to be honest!  I had mentioned that I got some local grass-raised Yak meat from Taos, and that I thought I’d make a burger to try it out (he’s been positive about my goal to limit meat intake to local/sustainably raised non-factory sources so I had no qualms there) and I figured I’d make a gardenburger for him, but he offered to just have a yak.  I was like … ok!  I suppose because it was rather recently that I’d inquired how he would feel about the occasional meats (which was itself spurred by the menu for a special dinner that I wanted to attend).  Anyway, I was sort of uncertain how to feel (guilt? pleasure?) and he was a little reserved as well.  When I cook vegetarian stuff as is the norm, I can be like How do you like it?? is it good? are you pleased??? But with this, I didn’t know what the right attitude was!  So I was quite hesitant in asking what he thought, because, such a loaded question.

Ended up not really talking until the following evening, he said physically he felt mostly fine although certainly the digestive track changes over time with a vegetarian diet - that could have been worse.  Didn’t seem quite sure how he felt about the experience, though he’s not ruling it out or anything.  Still processing. Talked a bit about the morality of killing miserable animals in horrid conditions for food, vs animals that have had a pleasant existence comparatively grazing in the mountains - it’s like, ok well its clearly better. But, then vs eating animal flesh at all - is it necessary?  And yes, the beeve or whatever may have been happier in its life up till that moment of death, but in the end it still died for you so is it really a huge difference, or merely an improvement on an undesirable situation?  I tend to come at it from a slightly different angle - I’m fine with the idea that humans are omnivores; I do not believe that a person needs to have meat with every meal (far from it); and I think that just because it’s morally acceptable to eat meat, that doesn’t give us the right to be cruel about it.  I tend to be somewhat more concerned with the impact that one’s diet has on the environment and in that sense, eating vegetarian isn’t necessarily and obviously superior just because you forsake meat.

It’s not like our farming policies and practices are benchmarks in sustainability and good practice whereas factory (meat) farming is all that’s wrong with the country.  Far from it … so where I struggle is, how do you weigh the impact of a vegetarian meat-substitute (like this one - and these are fucking delicious, I must say. But click on the drop-down list of ingredients) vs a grazed and locally slaughtered animal like my Yak (where the ingredient list is literally just yak).   So, on the one hand you’ve got a product where, it’s true nothing died for your meal directly at least, but it implicitly supports the crazy corn/soy farming subsidies, it’s highly processed and full of additives, and who can calculate just how much refined oil products were consumed in the manufacture, packaging and shipping all over the country to get it to your freezer - vs some meat in a simple vacuum-sealed package that traveled under 100 miles to arrive at your farmers market.  For me, if I were to be tipped into making an even larger lifestyle change than I already have, to feel good about myself and my actions, not to mention healthy, I would be a lot more inclined to say that being careful to eat locally and seasonally would have a much larger real-world impact than going vegetarian in a careless way.  I’m sure my opinions are flavored a bit by all the lazy vegetarians I’ve known over my life.  By which I mean, those who eschew meat, and subsist on kraft mac n cheese and toasted white bread.  I’m sure they have their reasons, and that’s fine, but it definitely does not speak to me.

So, along those lines, I was very pleased to create a few meals last week that were 100% local from the farmer’s market with eggs from my very own chickens.  I find that a lot more satisfying, on a personal level, than “just” making a vegetarian dish using ingredients that have been shipped to me from mexico.  Although to be fair, it’s just another example of how standards change - for instance “just” making a vegetarian meal from scratch even if the vegetables aren’t necessarily seasonal is way way more pleasing than eating something already prepared, processed, and frozen for my convenience.  So, you know. I guess in general I feel like I’m doing better, but there’s still room for improvement! Todays farmer’s market haul was another huge sack of greens and onions and peas and mushrooms and herbs and the first cherries of the season! Exciting.  If I can find my muffin tin, I am thinking some mini-fritatta could be the way to go for some of it!

One of the things that Geoff has been sort of going in circles around, is the idea of eating some animals but not others - like why some are “pets” and therefor sacred, but others are ok to raise for slaughter.  I have some thoughts there but I guess that’s a topic for another day.

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In which i prove technically adept

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Motivated by a friend who is doing a 21-day posting challenge I thought I’d try and write more too - came over to wordpress and in the process of marking some comments as spam, I accidentally relegated all of my “good” comments to the spam bin.  Which is at last count 2700 comments deep.  I searched out the names I know, so probably retrieved most of them, but it took me the better part of an hour to undo that damage.  One step forward, and then a toppling, staggering collapse backwards.

Not feeling super hot today.  A phone call with the debt collectors left me in tears but scared off the collector, at least temporarily.  The saga to date - on a $2500 loan, I didn’t realize it existed, got sent to collection, hated hated hated hated the slimy fuckers with a burning passion, didn’t want to pay, finally paid down $2000 of it, but they insisted I owed way waaaaay more than the last $500 so I stopped returning their calls.  It got bounced around some more, and a hold was put on my WPI account which would prevent me from registering for further classes (unknown if it will prevent graduation).  The latest bill to arrive claims I owe $1900 - I call bullshit and ask for an itemized statement of there the hell that extra $1400 came from.  The company is unable to provide this, claiming a “principle” of $1300 + $400 in fees and $200 in interest.  I offer to pay $1500 to make the whole mess go away.  I’m told they will submit this settlement offer - a few weeks later, the lady gets back to me and says no, and furthermore claims I had previously contacted the lender (ECSI) and offered a settlement which they turned down.  I did no such thing!  The collection agency, being unable to tell me how it is that I owe $1300 on $500 told me to contact ECSI to get that information.  I called them up and was told in no uncertain terms that they no longer handed the loan and would be unable to give me that information.  That was the full extent of the conversation I had with a rep - I don’t even have an account number with them, no money was discussed and there’s no way I could have made an offer to this underling on an account they claimed no access to.   It’s all just … preposterous.

Flash forward one day and I am talking with the collectors again.  The lady is telling me over and over to make a payment of $1500 (since I stated I could pay that in lump sum as part of my offer) and work out a payment plan for the remaining $400.  I was like no until you tell me where that $1300 came from!  She was like :| hang on.   And I got elevated to her boss.  I explained once again, I’ve already paid down $2000 so what’s the deal.  He has asked me to send proof of this payment - so …. I’ll see what I can find.   I’m pretty sure the answer is going to be that I’m fucked, and that I made that payment to a different collection agency and they took $800 of my money for themselves, gave $1200 to wpi, and then passed on the loan to someone else (Security Credit) who added their own $400 fee and $200 in interest.  And they are going to tell me well golly that’s just too bad but you still owe us $1900.  Fucking cocksuckers, all of them.

But - good news. Geoff is coming out for a 2-week visit tomorrow!  Ah, I’m so excited to be able to relax and enjoy some summer with him :)   All sort of grilling and hiking and refreshing alcoholic concoctions.  And my little chicks are doing well, at 2 months old now.  I found a home for the baby rooster, who has been getting me up at 6am for the last week with his baby vocal cords!  So, on the way to the airport tomorrow making a detour outside santa fe right off the highway to meet up with a lady who has “three acres with goats sheep and a cow.  Yes, one cow. ” - she used to have peacocks, and so had a coop already, and wants to pick up some chickens to teach her daughters responsibility.  She thinks the silkie is adorable (he is) and will have no problem with the crowing.  Perfect!!  And we’ll be able to sleep in Saturday, haha.

Geoff can help me build the coop which I have all drafted out, and lumber bought just need to start applying saw and nails.  I hope to frame it out Saturday, and then on Sunday tear down the ghetto old coop to scavenge plywood and the roof structure.  After that, young and old will need to be integrated into the new house!  We’ll see how that goes - the 2 pullets are likely to be missing their boy, and they are much, much smaller than the adult hens so I hope they don’t get picked on too badly.  They have all had plenty of free-range mingle time these last 2 weeks, but in the giant yard it’s not a problem.  Sometimes Peggy Sue gets a gleam in her eyes and goes after one, but they are fast.  I hope that at twilight everyone will be confused about the new coop situation and I can stuff them in - sleepy hens are generally peaceful hens.

So, this 2 week visit is a sort of a trial run to see if Geoff can be highly productive while out here.  If it goes well, his advisors have okay’d him spending 50/50 time split between here and FL.  Since he can do all his research work from anywhere, the only change would be the weekly meeting- so more updates, or teleconference or something.   So I need to get my ass in gear and clean out the office (filing. so much filing to do).  Anyway!  That would be awesome.  One visit per month or 5 weeks is livable and I’ve been holding up ok but more would be better.  Especially if there’s no physical requirements for him to be on campus.  At the end of the (school)year, it’s possible he might be out here more to sort of start to integrate into the (possible) postdoc position at the lab but that’s all still up in the air at this point.

MEANWHILE a good friend in CO is probably going to come down to spend a month or 2 living with me this summer - perhaps within the next week?  Not 100% sure when!  So, there will be visit overlap which will make for a crowded little house :)  But they know each other through our wow guild.  I’m looking forward to having a temporary roommate though, should be fun!  In October the 3 of us will probably all be at Blizzcon as well.   Super geeky amg.  I need to book rooms for that.  Thinking … roadtrip!

Eating/diet - continue to sort of pare meat out of my diet, but it’s just been a natural byproduct not something I’ve stressed over.  I don’t cook it for myself very often these days, limited to when I pick up some local grass-raised pork or bison from the farmers market.  This week, I got Yak from Taos!  Excited to see how that compares to the santa fe bison which was SO GOOD.  For lunches, I’ve long been a fan of lean cuisines “spa” line of healthier frozen meal offerings.  But like 95% of them contain chicken.  Thinking about factory raised chickens makes me very sad.  But vegetarian frozen meals tend to cost twice or more as much! Arhg!  It’s very odd how we subsidize things.   But, we’re sort of meeting in the middle, where I’m eating less meat overall for health and ethical reasons, and he may be open to eating happy meat on special occasions.  Which is sort of how I’ve started thinking about meat (for special occasions).   I’m really not really into absolutes like complete denial.  If I really want something, I can have it - but it doesn’t need to be every day of the week.  Also seafood stays!  mmmmmm sushi.

Diet wise, I usually have about one week a month where I slip, and progress levels off, and then picks back up again.  Down about 25lbs to date since February.  If I can hold this pace I could be almost at 150 for my birthday which was sort of a private goal.  In the 170s it seemed impossible!   Potential-roommate cinder has also been talking about weight loss, so might be able to rope her in as well.  She’s also a gluten-intolerant vegetarian, so cooking at home will be slightly more complex (But not hugely so.  Bread is wicked NOT diet food).  Probably the biggest change for her will be the lack of late-night food options here!  It’s not like you can run out at 10pm and hit up Qdoba or something.  So if that happens, will have to carve out office space for her as well!  Been thinking on how to move stuff to the shed and in general open up space in the house to work all this out.  Which had needed to happen anyway.  Exciting times!

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Summer projects

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Are far too numerous!  I want to build a coop out of cob, get a motorcycle running, pour a concrete slab, do some gardening, engineer some animal waterers, build a backyard patio (with a firepit!) and do some woodworking!  Also I need to build a compost bin, and fix my car stereo (and the suspension for that matter).  Oh, and renew my passport.  Oh, and hardwire the power inverted and mount it under a seat! Possibly investigate converting the mini into a DVR?  This weekend, though getting a larger coop is really the biggest thing that needs to happen - I got my baby chicks on April 9 which means they are already 7 weeks old! wow.  I have been throwing them outside for the day since it’s so warm out.  They don’t range too far afield yet - mostly content to snuggle in the warren of paths under the rosebush or peck at grass shoots in the sun.  Haven’t seen much confrontation between the older hens and the babies - I think everyone has so much space that it’s a non-issue.  A few pecks to a rump from Abigail if one got too impertinent but that was it.  The only issue, really is that the grownup hens have taken a liking to my chick starter crumbles!  Which is fine for them, they have access to plenty of calcium in the form of oyster shells and crushed eggshells, as long as the babies get enough food.  What I might do is transition them to grower this weekend, and put that out for everyone.  The older ones can supplement as they need.  The need for a more robust watering system is also becoming more apparent.   Thinking back to last year, I have no idea what I was feeding my pullets!  I probably started them on layer feed way too early, in retrospect - might be my fault while darlene is a little messed up.  But I really can’t remember.  Oh well!

Some guidelines for feed:

Approximate Ages (weeks)     Crude protein %     Calcium %     Phosphorus %
Starter 0 - 6 weeks                        18                       0.9               0.45
Grower 6 - 16 weeks                     16                       0.8               0.45
Pre-layer 16 - 19 weeks                17                       2.0               0.45
Laying > 19                               17 - 19             3.8 - 4.0            0.45

Came across some relatively unknown national parks in NM that look like possible fun to visit - Capulin Volcano, Gila cliff dwellings, and Aztec ruins!

I went to a talk this weekend given by Caballo Blanco, which was basically him recounting the story of his experience with the Raramuri, basically as the book details but a different perspective.  Slightly less embellishment - or perhaps simply the embellishment that he chose to include!

Chatted a bit with him after the talk about safety traveling through mexico, and he reaffirmed what I had personally come to believe - stay out of Juarez, cross the border zone as rapidly as possible and then you are just .. in a country with regular people.  The two towns that came up the most relative to conversations about the book, and copper canyon in general,  were Urique and Batopilas - in my original plan I think I was a little apprehensive about these base of canyon towns, because access is via a somewhat dodgy cliffside dirt road so I sort of wrote it off, but now I realize that this is where I must go :) It’s all very clear. I could start in Chihuahua as planned, maybe stay at this hotel. And then on to the canyons, and look at this place to stay!  Entre Amigos.  It’s like it was designed for me.  I am thinking however that taking my car is not the way to go.  It’s just too damn loud, and loud. And obnoxious.  I mean, I always thought that, I just couldn’t come up with a better plan - but now I feel that bus and train is the way to go!  Just do it backpacking style. So, back to the drawing board on the best way for that to happen.  I think hiring someone like caballo to be guide would be very nice.  Have dreams of hiking through the canyons and ending up at this one amazing lodge, the Have no idea at this point if Geoff will ever be open to the idea.  I was once again thinking dreamily about a christmas break trip, but Kelly just posted on facebook that they are considering a family trip to Spain.  Hell yeah!

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running fool

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Lately I’ve been on a running kick - by which I mean, reading about running.  A few months back, a friend mentioned a book; Born to Run, and a program; couch to 5k. I looked into both and was surprised to see the book was about (in part) the Tarahamura people, of copper canyon mexico. The one and the same place I wanted to visit last winter!  Intrigued, I ordered the kindle edition but had to finish reading a rather dry book first.  I also started trying to run, following the C25K program which was going well enough till I started getting very bad foot pain, which I self-ID’d as sesamoid inflammation.  By taking it easy and not running, the pain is gone at last and now that I’ve had a chance to start reading this book I’m quite interested in trying something different.  I’m also totally not over my desire to visit the area, and all this reading has only reinvigorated that.

The “something different” is adjusting my running style and footwear to something a lot more minimalistic and forefront-strike oriented.  I could get some thin soles shoes, just use my old street pumas, or pick up something freaky like the vibram fivefingers.  But, after I spent so much time making fun of them! >.<  After all the reading I’ve done, though I’m probably going to get a pair of those - I miss the feeling of hiking and walking in sandals but its just so rugged (and sharp!) out here.  I’d like a pair of the TKO Treks but they aren’t released for women yet - “late spring.” Can I hold out?

I found an Article in Nature about the differences in impact when running fore-foot-strike versus rear-foot-strike which is how runners who predominantly run in thickly padded running shoes stride.  Runners who are accustomed to running barefoot have 1/3 the impact to their legs than shod runners do! (the video link is a nice accompaniment to the charts presented in the Nature article)

Interview with Caballo Blanco, from the book born to run. This is the guy who lives amongst the Tarahumara and organized the copper canyon ultra marathon.  I was looking through links the other night and I found a facebook page he’s behind where I just happened to see in a random comment thread that….. he’s coming to los alamos this weekend! To run in the Jemez Mountain Trail Runs 50miler!  AND give a talk on Sunday, right in town!  I’m so excited! And proceeds go to Norawas de Rarámuri.

And, what’s more caballo blanco even leads adventure tours of the copper canyons! Needless to say, I am intrigued.  The prices seem decent for a personal guide into one of the most rugged areas in the world!  Perhaps I could learn from some experts on making homemade tortillas, because I gotta tell you all my attempts with masa harina have been tasty, but distinctly un-tortilla-like.

I contacted the organizers for this weekend, and have the go ahead to take some pics at the talk on Sunday which I’m looking forward to, and I think I will take photos of the race as well.  It’ll be a good excuse to go for a nice hike on a pretty day and see some athletes doing their thing.  A friend from santa fe might come up and hang out as well, so that’ll be cool.

Some very nice pictures from the 2010 CCUM.

Barefoot Ted, also from the Born to Run book had some interesting posts on his blog.  I liked this interview with him in Runners World.   And an interview with the author of Born to Run.

Last night I went for an experimental walk, only like 3/4 mile, barefoot with a few short testing the waters strides of running.  It felt nice, but I did step on some pointy rocks!  My impatience is mounting up rapidly, now that I’ve decided I want monkey shoes I want them NOW dammit.  If I go to santa fe this weekend to stock up on some staples, I’ll swing by REI and try some on, even if my precious Treks aren’t manufactured yet.  And I need to translate all of this desire to run into actual running.  I want to be able to run wild antelopes to the death!

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ancient secret revealed to be delicious

Thursday, April 15, 2010

I made a delicious soup tonight!  It was split mung bean (dhal) which I made because in my Higher Taste cookbook they mention mung a lot, and the last time I was at the hippie co-op I saw they had mung beans in the bulk section!  So, I bought some and then made this soup with what I had on hand. Was very easy, like 1 cup beans, and added fresh grated ginger, tumeric, and cumin and a lot of other spices in some seasoning blends that I had on hand, cook for an hour till soft.  Diced up some cilantro and ate - and it was really, really good.  I at like 1/2 the pot of soup accidentally.  So that was about 21g protein and 23g dietary fiber! wow.  Mung beans = amazing.  I feel like I learned a secret today!

I’ve started tracking my protein/fiber numbers as well as my overall calories, it’s sort of like a mini-game trying to maximize them without going over in calories. Very difficult, but of course easier with more whole foods.  Today I managed to get 49g protein and 33g fiber which is really good! I’m supposed to be hitting around 55 and 25, respectively.  For around 1100 calories today, I’m pretty pleased. I even spoiled myself by going to quiznos to get a sub - small veggie on wheat.  I remember 2 months ago I was like “go to quiznos and NOT get a regular sized chicken sub??? How will that be satisfying omg”  and today it was like .. a somewhat larger than usual lunch.  Like wow, I get to eat this WHOLE sammich??  It’s funny how things change.  And most days I feel completely satisfied.  Today I feel like I overate, lol.

Granted, not always - last night I had already had my 1100 or so for the day, but I was still really hungry!  The point isn’t to be in pain, so I fixed myself a snack - diced up some tomatoes and basil, and 1oz fresh mozzarella, a little olive oil and vinegar for dressing and jammed it all inside a whole grain pita pocket thing.  All told it was around 200calories, totally satisfying and I didn’t feel too guilty about going over since it was good ingredients.  That said, if I’m starting to feel the tiniest stirrings of hunger as a lay down to go to sleep I know I’ve done it right :)

I’ve been buying a lot of vegetables when I go to the store each week and preparing what I have on hand as I get inspired. It’s working out pretty well!  I was excited to see that the CSA I belonged to last year is starting home delivery and smaller orders!  They are rolling out the changes in a few weeks so I’ve really got my fingers crossed that I can start getting organic CSA seasonal goodness delivered to me! I’d be so happy about that.  I loved the boxes I did last summer, but even on the every other week schedule it was more than I could eat by myself :(  So, I hope that works out.  And the los alamos farmers market should be starting back up for the season any moment now!

T-minus 36 hours till parents get here - need to really do my cleaning and uhhh finish the guest bedroom remodel. …. [shifty eyes]  … also I should do my taxes.  And I need to take pics of the peeps before they explode into gawky gangly dinosaur adolescent chickens.

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Wednesday, April 7, 2010

I didn’t sleep very well last night because my brain was spinning at one million mph, mostly about silly things like forums and websites.  This year for derby, I don’t plan on skating.  But I still like being involved - so I decided I’d continue to do the photography thing, and see if I could contribute to the organizing.  For me, remotely that means … websites and forums!!! The team uses a yahoo mailing list to organize everything.  It’s a ton of email, subjects all jumbled up, and in general it annoys me.  It’s also extremely hard to archive information, or find old topics that may still be pertinent (gear things, fitness, etc).  So I wanted them to have and use a real actual forum.  After some nagging and wheedling, I got the login information for the webhosting, and the joomla content management install.  So, the first thing was to install a forum. I went with phpBB because I’m reasonably familiar with it.  I got that all set up, looking somewhat decent, organized to support multiple teams and levels of access, and then started hounding people to join.  Fortunately in this venture I convinced a super enthusiastic and non-cynical 18-y/o skater who’s totally a driving force in the league.  So she’s been helpful in herding the cats (no one listens to me).   Adoption is slow, but it is at least proceeding.  The next task is to overhaul the website, which is ugly and clunky and a pain to update.  It’s full of information that isn’t relevant, and lacking in the things that visitors need to know.  It’s not worth updating, so I’m just going to destroy it and start over.  The catch is, the webhosting only allows 1gb disk space, and I’m finding that I have trouble installing a second Joomla to play around with.  I’d rather build the new site ON its host home rather than build it elsewhere and import it although that’s certainly an option. Then there’s the third option, which is to just get new hosting.  $30/month for 1gb disk and 20gb bandwidth is pretty ridiculous, with $2.50/GB fees if you use too much bandwidth.  Though granted we only use like 150MB bandwidth currently.  And an additional $20/month for another 1gb server space.  Seriously? $20 buys like 160gb these days.  The only thing I do not have is the login information for godaddy to switch the DNS when the time comes, but I could just start a new hosting plan on Dreamhost, which I’m familiar with, for like $9/month for unlimited everything.  If I just did that, then I could start building a new site on the new server from scratch and when it was all good to go, the only thing that would be tricky would be importing the phpbb forum.  Which is doable, but I don’t have access to phpmyadmin on the current hosting.  I could probably ask them, but as I grow more and more convinced to jump ship I feel bad asking for help.  They are nice people, it’s just a shitty value.

Anyway, I think the thing to do is talk the league into switching hosts.  I’ll have to figure out who pays for this stuff anyhow.  And talk them into a year upfront at $120 vs $30/month. Maybe in the meantime I’ll just install a JOOMLA onto my own website and migrate it over later.  I’ll just … do that.

I’ve also still got like 5gb of photos to process and deal with.   I downloaded the beta of Lightroom3, and it’s nice and shiny, but not familiar to me.  And I keep getting home from work super tired, so it’s not going very fast.  This weekend - need to paint baseboard and finish putting the not-pink room back together in anticipation for mom’s visit.  She and dan are coming out for a week, and geoff will be out for a few days overlapping the next weekend.  So it will be very busy around here!! looking forward to that.

Watched No Reservations this week, awesome as usual.  It was a how-to episode featuring some very skilled chefs.  Although some day I’ll make beef bourguignon, the recipe that really caught my eye was the spaghetti with fresh tomato sauce.   Well, that and the whole roast chicken by thomas keller.  Maybe I’ll try that when mom is around!

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better living through technology

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Well, things are better since that last post! In brief, January was a tough month, because we did a lot of talking. A LOT.  My thought process was basically, if we are going to make this work I’m going to bring up everything I had reservations about, just get it all out in the open so everyone can make the most informed decisions.  After a month, things came to a head when I wanted to go camping with my CO guy, now demoted to friend, but still someone I’d like to hang out with. Plus he had a wood-stove-heated tent, so we could camp in winter! Geoff however, didn’t like that plan.  He basically said that he wasn’t cool with me spending time with guys, alone, under any circumstances. I sort of wrote up a list of examples of different plausible situations where I might be spending time with a guy, like - is this ok? what about this? how about now? why? And he said basically no, no and no.  So I was like ok well then this is not going to work out.  But I took the time to write a letter explaining why.  Explaining how I value my guy friends, and that just because someone else is interested in me that doesn’t mean I’m required to act on it, like I lack free will of my own.  How I feel about that whole “I trust you but I don’t trust other guys” line of BS.  I was pretty sad, but it seemed final.  But to my surprised, he called while I was out walking to calm down and said that what I’d written made sense and he was being an idiot. Or something to that effect!  So we went from there.  February was much easier, I went to FL for the first time to visit there, see his little student world.  We had good adventures freezing to death after skinny dipping in the balls cold pond at the hippy forest hostel in GA, and stayed at a really nice little hotel on the beach in jax. Blew up a tire on the highway, walked around campus.  Then he came here for a week at spring break, and we took a road trip down to the Bosque del Apache (pictures pending) and ate some delicious food and saw some beautiful scenery and birds and stayed at a little B&B (so nice).

And in other news, I went on a health kick!  I had been talking a lot of talk about actually tracking what I eat to see how much/bad it is, but I had sort of a wake-up moment when I was in Florida because there was a bathroom scale and I dared to step up on.  Unpleasant!  I have never before actually tried to lose weight. Sometime I sort of intimate, vaguely, that I should watch what I eat more, but I don’t believe that most people have a good feeling for how many calories they actually consume. I didn’t! So, step one has been correcting that.  I installed LoseIt! for the iphone and began obsessively tracking things.  I also plugged in my current weight, height, age, and activity level (what’s up, sedentary!) to see how much I should be eating, to lose 2ish lb/week.  It’s … much less than I’d eat left to my own devices, that’s for sure! I still didn’t have a scale at home, and Geoff talks about doing yoga though his wii fit, so I thought I’d pick one of those up off ebay.  I figure if I never use it, I can just resell for a small loss.  I don’t actually use it very much, but sometimes I do some yoga!  And I check in regularly to see what my BWI/weight are.  So the good news is … it’s actually working!  Assuming that my initial weight on the other scale is aligned with the readings from the wii (which I think is reasonable) I’m down 15lb so far (since mid-February).  So, pretty much on track.  I think the current prediction for college weight is early June, assuming I keep up the same rate of course.  Funny enough I don’t actually feel very different at this point!  And even though I knew I’d regret it later if this actually worked, I refused to take any before pics.  Just too horrifying.

In addition to the calorie reduction, have been trying to exercise more.  Any bonus activity is also logged, so I know approx how much I burned off and eat more so I end up at a net of ~1100 cal/day.  Mostly more walks, but I wanted to start running as well!  Also I desired a more accurate way to track times / distance / calories AND SO I bought a Nike+ widget to install in my shoe (or strapped on top, more accurately).  I thought it was a gps o matic, but it’s pretty much just a fancy pedometer!  It seems to work reasonably well, though.  So I decided to try and start running as well!  A friend told me about this program, couch to 5k, that she was doing to gradually work up to it and reduce muscle strain and injury.  Sounds good!  Plus there are podcasts!  So now when I go out I’m all strapped up with wires and gadgets that are tracking, monitoring and encouraging me.  Which is very helpful!  That said, with the weather turning nice I can see why people get those armbands - I’m running out of pockets.

Aspen is also really into this program.  My shoes are North Face trail running shoes, because I want to try and avoid pavement as much as possible out of deference to my old person joints.  So she gets to come along.  If need be, I can jog with her on leash, but it’s less fun for both of us.

HOWEVER, last week sadness!  My feet started to hurt.  I’ve been running a little more on the balls of my feet as opposed to heel-striking but either I’m doing it wrong, or I have bad anatomy (I’d buy either, really) because I started to get very bad ball of the foot pain.  My internet research has led me to suspect the sesamoids - two stupid little bones under the ball that act as a pulley for tendons to the big toe.  It hurts to apply pressure, but only from certain angles.  And moving my toe in certain ways really makes it ache.  So I took the weekend off except for some walking, and busted out some orthotics from REI for high arches.  And …. they still hurt.  It’s been almost a week now (my progress! nooooo) with barely any improvement so I’m not sure what I should do at this point.  Sulk more? Or call a doctor.  One the one hand, if these stupid little bones are a problem for me, that explains the crippling pain I get when I try and wear heels ever :(  I totally keep buying cute heels, too.  Even though I know I last for like an hour, tops, and won’t be able to walk the next day.  Geoff thinks I should just take up biking, but then Aspen can’t come along, so.  sulk.

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just an ordinary day

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Just an ordinary day
till you came around
I had my feet on the ground
so much for that

Just an ordinary day
till you came around
and now my life’s upside down
imagine that

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iicyNKzIF5A

So, Mexico didn’t happen.  What did happen is that my travel partner is giving me weird vibes, and finally 2 days before we were going to leave, he says he doesn’t want to go.  Leaving me to cancel everything I’ve booked and try not to have a disappointed breakdown.  I tried to find a way to save it, but nothing stuck and I didn’t want to go on my own.  I was really sad.  I wanted to still go on a trip, but I was just so tired and defeated after like a month of planning to have it not materialize for me that I couldn’t muster the enthusiasm to get 2 people excited about something again.  Maybe for myself I could just take off and be fine, make due with something else but like hell I was going to try and get him enthused again after that.  All I wanted was some genuine excitement from him.  And I didn’t want to waste my whole vacation just sitting around playing wow and being bored.  That’s what we were on track for anyhow, but a few days later he flipped out over my dog and left prematurely.  I was shook up, but a day or so later decided to take my trip to somewhere, anywhere and headed north.  Started feeling better right away, travel is great like that. Met up with a friend in Boulder, crashed there a day or so, then headed to Moab.  Spent a day exploring Arches and Canyonlands. Pictures to come. Met someone cute & interesting in Boulder, who I’d be interested in spending more time with!  But, a 6 hour drive is rough.  Maybe not as bad as 3/4 of the country, of course, since you can just up and drive it, but not easily.  But, I get the impression he’s not interested when I don’t hear back for a week.  Then, after that, my original bf now back in FL wants to get back together.  He writes me a long letter to that end, and we talk a lot.  I say I’m willing to give it a try.  I think, in my head, I wanted something scaled back. Maybe date other people, gain some perspective.  I do a poor job of expressing this, and now I gather it’s all or nothing.  At this point, of course, the guy from CO reappears and indicates interest.  What would make me happiest is to see what develops with both of them.  But I’ve been told in no uncertain terms that isn’t in the cards.  Feeling very tired and disconsolate.  Don’t know what I should do.  Tired of distance.  Tired of uncertainty.  Just plain tired from not sleeping well.  I feel like I need to make a decision, either the shiny unknown or the known that didn’t work the first time but can make changes.  I hate gambling.  I want everything in the world.  I don’t want to hurt anyone. Don’t know what to do.

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More planning…

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Ok, so Mexico Trip is like 5% more real at this point.  I’ve actually engaged the services of a petsitter, which is step one!  I’m almost ready to consider booking places.  I wasn’t sure if holiday travel would trump the off-season, but as far as I can tell, it’s probably going to be mostly off-season.  So I’m not super stressed there.  I still need to find the title for my car. And registration papers.

The US State Department does not currently have a travel warning for mexico (there are 30 countries currently on the list) but they do of course advise caution.  The travel.state page of travel tips/info for Mexico.

I have decided against crossing at El Paso/Juarez due to safety concerns.  Also, when given the option I prefer smaller to bigger - so in that light, I’m going to head to Columbus, NM, which should be able to accommodate all the paperwork that I need.  And I think perhaps returning via Antelope Wells (Adventuresome! Historic! !), if the stars align and I can find roads that lead there.  This would present an opportunity to explore Paquime as well! Rancheria photos. I’m possibly also interested in checking out Cuarenta Casas while in the copper canyon area?

So basically I want to explore around Central North Mexico.  Towns of Copper canyon/people’s guide.

Advice and tips from the lonely planet mexico forum.  People mention Bauichivo as a city that might be good to start hikes from.  The Tarahumara people even have a website.  Bootsnall search results for copper canyon. Mexonline copper canyon page.  If visiting the small town of Urique, here is a cute place to stay, Entre Amigos.  Also near Urique, along the rim of copper canyon, the Uno Lodge looks beautiful.  Driving to Urique might be problematic.

Neat hotels in creel. If I do make it to the beach, Hotel Playa de Cortes?

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